Nesting place for purple martin

ABSTRACT

A nesting place for the purple martin made of a synthetic resin material and comprising a hollow housing having an upper portion and a lower portion removably affixed to said upper portion. An egress and ingress opening is divided between both portions. There are means for removably affixing the lower portion to the upper portion.

United States Patent 1 [111 3,783,831

Patliff Jan. 8, 1974 [54] NESTING PLACE FOR PURPLE MARTIN 3,163,152 12/1964 Stone 119/23 1 lnvemon Edi-16nd Lewis m 5139 Clinton 1123;??? 211323 132223511111: 119,23 UX Blvd., Jackson, Miss. 39209 [22] Filed: Dec. 15, 1972 Primary ExaminerHugh R. Chamblee [21] pp No': 315,448 Attorney-Gordon W. Hueschen et a1.

Related US. Application Data 1 Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 78,369, Oct. 6,

1970, abandoned.

{5 2T UZSL'ET; III.QLITIII'I..1;QIII ..I.Q.I.IL 119/23- [51] Int. Cl A01k 31/00 [58] Field of Search 119/23 [56] 1 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 137,980 4/1873 Vanstone 119/23 128,538 7/1872 Deknatel 119/23 2,260,018 10/1941 Garthus 119/23 [57] v ABSTRACT A nesting place for the purple martin made of a synthetic resin material and comprising a hollow housing having an upper portion and a lower portion removably affixed to said upper portion. An egress and ingress opening is divided between both portions. There are means for removably affixing the lower portion to the upper portion.

8 Claims, Til airing Figures PATENTED JAN 8 4 SHEU 1 0F 2 FIG 3 PATENTEU JM 81974 SHEET 2 OF 2 FIG.

NESTING PLACE FOR PURPLE MARTIN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This is a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Ser. No. 78,369, filed Prague The 1970, now abandoned.

This invention is directed to a nesting place particularly designed for the purple martin, Progue Subis. The graceful and attractive flight of the purple martin, its interesting, habits, its loud musical notes, and its voracious appetite for flying insects such as flies, wasps, mosquitos, moths, flying ants, bugs, beetles, and the like, have established the purple martin as a valuable insect destroyer.

Purple martins breed in colonies, and have nested in shelters provided by man since early times when hollow gourds were hung for this purpose by the American Indians. While many types of such birdhouses are available, most of them have the conventional box-like configuration, are heavy, and are difficult to clean and maintain from year to year.

Many wooden houses provide no protection for the purple martin against cats. In addition, wooden houses are soon taken over by starlings and sparrows thus making the wooden houses uninhabitable for purple martins. 7

Many gourd houses suffer from the same disadvantages, especially in the inability to be easily cleaned.

It is an object of this invention to provide a purple martin nesting place made of a modern material of construction which is durable, which requires a minimum of maintenance, and which can be readily disassembled and cleaned when desired.

Still other objects will readily present themselves to one skilled in the art upon reference to the ensuing specification, the drawings, and the claims.

SUMMARY OF THE CLAIMS The purple martin nesting place in the present invention is a hollow housing, preferably having a gourd-like shape, made of synthetic resin material such as an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin, polyethylene, or the like. The ingress and egress opening to the nesting place is divided between the upper and lower portions of the nest. The lower portion is removably affixed to the upper portion. The lower portion has a substantially flat bottom part which has at least one drain hole. A lip around the opening on the upper portion prevents a twisting of two portions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IEDRAWINGS In the drawings,

FIG. I is a side elevational viewof a'purple martin nesting place of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the purple martin nesting place of this invention along the line IIII of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the lower portion;

FIG. 4 is a view from inside the nest of the ingress- FIG. 9 is a view of the ingress-egress opening of the upper portion along line IX-IX of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a modification of the attachment means for the upper and lower portions;

FIG. 11 is another modification of the attachment means for the upper and lower portions; and

FIG. 12 is still another modification of the attachment means for the upper and lower portions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, housing 10 comprises an upper portion 11 and a lower portion 12 removably held together along line 13. In the specification and appended claims, the terms lower and bottom will be used interchangeably when referring to the lower portion 12 of the housing 10 and, likewise, the terms upper and top will be used interchangeably when referring to the upper portion 11 of the housing 10.

Housing 10 is gourd-like in shape and is provided Since the ingress-egress opening 15 is divided between the two portions 1 l and 12, there would be a tendency for the top portions to twist thus narrowing the opening 15 preventing the use of the birdhouse by purple martins. The opening 15 does not have to be equally divided between the two portions; however, it is preferred that the opening be approximately equally divided. 1

A unique arrangement of the opening 15 prevents any possible twisting of the two portions 11 and 12,

thus providing the proper alignment of the two portions.

The egress-ingress opening 15 is a thickened area, that is, the opening is thicker than that of the housing 10.

In FIG. 7, the egress-ingress opening 20 is clearly shown as a thicker area, thicker than the sides of portion 11; It will be noted that the opening 20 at its junction with housing l l at approximately line 13 has an extension or lip 21 extending into the housing 10. This lip 2] ends above groove 19 (FIGS. 2 and 9). Theutilization of the lip 21 to prevent a twisting of the two por tions is seen in FIG. 1 in which the lip 21 extends slightly into the opening 15. This lip fits on the inside of the lower portions opening 30 and locks the two portions in place.

In FIG. 2, one means of attaching the upper portion 11 and the lower portion 12 is shown by elements 18 and 19. The upper portion 11 has a groove 19 which runs around the housing above line 13 (FIG. 1). The lower portion 12 has a corresponding extension (tongue) 18 which also runs around housing 10. Other means for removably attaching the two portions is shown by FIG. 10 which is a screw means,yby FIG. 11 which is a self-threading screw, and by FIG. 12 which is a bayonet-type mount.

As shown in FIG. 12, the upper portion 11 and lower portion 12 are removably held together by means of a bayonet-type mount which comprises first latch member 27, second latch member 29 and lock stop 28. First latch member 27 and lock stop 28 are molded integral with upper portion 11 and second latch member 29 is molded integral with lower portion 12. The relative positions of the first and second latch members 27 and 29 are not important and can be reversed, if desired, and provided a substantially water-tight juncture is obtained. Similarly, lock stop 28 can be molded adjacent to second latch member 29 if desired. From the standpoint of readily providing a substantially water-tight juncture, the relative positioning of latch members 27 and 29 as shown in FIG. 12 is preferred.

As an alternative means for removably joining together upper portion 11 and lower portion 12, mating thread means 25 can be molded into both portions as shown in FIG. 10.

In yet another embodiment of this invention, outer rim 26 (FIG. 11) of upper portion 11 is flared outwardly so as to slightly overlap the adjacent edge of lower portion 12 and the two portions then are removably secured together by means of self-threading screw 24 or the like.

FIG. 4 shows the ingress-egress opening 30 of the lower portion 12. The thickened area below the opening itself tapers down in thickness as it approaches the thickness of the housing (FIG. 5).

Around the circumference of the top of the lower portion 12 above the extension 18 are a series of openings 22 (FIG. 3). Corresponding extensions 23 are on the top or upper portion 1 I. These extensions also prevent a twisting action. These extensions are not essential since the lip 21 prevents twisting.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are views of the lower portion 12. The extension 18 is clearly seen in FIG. 5. The drain holes 17 are shown in FIG. 6.

In FIG. 9, the opening 20 is shown tapering into the housing. The lip 21 stopping below groove 19 is also clearly shown.

This description of the Figures clearly shows how the purple martin housing can be easily disassembled for cleaning purposes. Reassembly is also a very simple operation due to the lip 21 with or without elements 22 and 23 which prevents twisting and aligns the two portions.

The article of manufacture of the present invention can be conveniently formed by conventional synthetic resin forming processes such as blow molding, etc. ABS resin is preferred for the purposes of this invention; however, other resins such as polyethylene, polystyrene, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose acetate, melamine, and the like, can be used.

The purple martin nesting places such as housing are mounted on a post or the like about 12 feet to about 30 feet from the ground and are painted in a bright color, for example red, white, blue or the like. Dark colors are generally avoided to prevent an excessive build-up of heat within a housing exposed to sunlight. One or more housings can be mounted on a particular post equipped with appropriate cross-members. Preferably, four or more housings are mounted on each post, and more housings are added as the purple martin colony grows in size.

While the illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described hereinbefore with particularity, it will be understood that various other modifications will be apparent to and can readily be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the claims appended hereto be limited to the examples and description set forth herein but rather the claims be construed as encompassing all the features of patentable novelty which reside in the present invention including all features which would be treated as equivalents thereof by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.

What is claimed is:

l. A nesting place for the purple martin, made of synthetic resin material which comprises,

a hollow housing having an upper portion with a curved section and a lower portion with a curved section removably affixed to said upper portion, said curved sections together forming an egress-ingress opening divided between said upper portion and said lower portion;

means on said lower portion for removably affixing said lower portion to said upper portion;

means on said upper portion for limiting the twisting of the two portions;

a hanger means on the top of said upper portion for hanging said nesting place; and

said lower portion having a substantially flat bottom part provided with at least one drain hole.

2. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 1 in which the housing has a gourd-like shape and the egress-ingress opening is approximately equally divided between said upper and lower portions.

3. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 2 in which said bottom part is provided with four peripherally spaced drain holes.

4. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a corresponding groove and extension, said groove being around the upper portion and said extension being around the lower portion.

5. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 4 in which the lip around said lower portion has notches and said upper portion has extensions which correspond to and fit within said notches.

6. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a bayonet-type latch.

7. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a I mating thread means on both the upper portion and the portion and the upper portion.

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT N0. 3, 783, 831

DATED 1 January 8, 1974 INVENTUFHS) Z Ratliff It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected asshown below:

Title page, item [76] should read as follows:

-[76] Inventor: Edmond Lewis Ratliff Signed and Scaled this Twelfth D a y Of November I 985 [SEAL] Arrest:

DONALD J. QUIGG Arresting Officer Commissioner ofPuclts and Trudeau 

1. A nesting place for the purple martin, made of synthetic resin material which comprises, a hollow housing having an upper portion with a curved section and a lower portion with a curved section removably affixed to said upper portion, said curved sections together forming an egress-ingress opening divided between said upper portion and said lower portion; means on said lower portion for removably affixing said lower portion to said upper portion; means on said upper portion for limiting the twisting of the two portions; a hanger means on the top of said upper portion for hanging said nesting place; and said lower portion having a substantially flat bottom part provided with at least one drain hole.
 2. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 1 in which the housing has a gourd-like shape and the egress-ingress opening is approximately equally divided between said upper anD lower portions.
 3. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 2 in which said bottom part is provided with four peripherally spaced drain holes.
 4. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a corresponding groove and extension, said groove being around the upper portion and said extension being around the lower portion.
 5. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 4 in which the lip around said lower portion has notches and said upper portion has extensions which correspond to and fit within said notches.
 6. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a bayonet-type latch.
 7. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a mating thread means on both the upper portion and the lower portion.
 8. A nesting place for the purple martin according to claim 3 in which said removably affixing means is a plurality of set screws threadedly engaging both the lower portion and the upper portion. 